A girl with a student-style bob haircut ran quickly past.
When my brother saw her, his expression changed, and I knew he must have thought of Fan Meiyun.
Fan Meiyun was still a vocational school student, and she often dressed just like that.
Several times I wanted to urge him to go find her and forget that wicked woman, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Even though I knew she had already fallen in love with someone else, a younger sister really shouldn’t comment on her brother’s romantic prospects.
How could I get him to leave that cheap woman? It was hard—after all, I couldn’t just start off by saying she was a bad person, or wouldn’t I become exactly the kind of meddling, trouble-stirring sister-in-law?
So after hesitating for a while, I said nothing and let it pass.
My brother suddenly said, “Why aren’t you talking? Are you scared?”
I quickly shook my head. “Why do you always think I’ll be scared?”
“It’s your first time leaving home, isn’t it? I was scared too the first time I left the village. But as long as you work hard, you’ll get your rewards.”
I looked at my brother, moved. In my past life, I barely spoke with him. Back then I was obsessed with that scumbag and wouldn’t listen to him at all. I thought Xie Yanlai was an intellectual—how could my brother, who did manual labor, compare to him?
Thinking about it now, how stupid I was. Pushing away the person who cared about me most and letting others trample all over me—what a foolish thing to do.
My brother continued, “Actually, it’s good that you’re going out to work. Only when I came back this time did I realize how much hardship you’ve ured at home. How did Mom become like this?”
I slowly ate my steamed bun without saying a word.
When I was little, she couldn’t stand the sight of me, cursing me out and kicking me from time to time. But back then it was mostly cold violence—she just refused to acknowledge me. But after my older sister Liu Yaolan got married, Zhao Qin became stranger and stranger.
She probably figured that since her daughter was already married off, she no longer needed to worry about her reputation, so she tormented me with all her might.
And my father grew even more silent, always turning a blind eye to it all, and he died early. I think that before he died, he must have felt relieved—finally able to die.
I don’t know why his heart turned to ash like that. He never told anyone about what he had been through.
My brother said, “This time when you go out, save up more money. When it comes to marriage, don’t worry about the family—just find someone who treats you well. Dad never cares about anything anyway, and I’ll help you too. I won’t let Mom control your marriage.”
I agreed, and also urged my brother to save his money, because in my past life, all the money he sent home was spent by Zhao Qin on her eldest daughter.
In my previous life, because of this, his later relationship with a woman turned very ugly. When it came time for the betrothal gifts, Zhao Qin couldn’t produce the money she had promised—it had all been sunk into the daughter—so she told her son to renege. My brother never had real feelings for that woman anyway, and after all the fighting, the marriage never happened. My brother remained a bachelor his whole life.
In this life, I couldn’t let my brother keep being a fool.
“I know you’re filial, but Mom will never give that money back to you. You’ve been sing money home all these years, but have you seen any sign that she ints to let you marry a wife? I know all about it—her money all goes to Liu Yaolan. In the you’ll still have nothing. You should think more about yourself.” Zhao Qin had nearly died giving birth to Liu Yaolan, and by then she already knew about my father’s affair, so she saw Liu Yaolan as her only hope and loved her deeply. That was something even my brother couldn’t compete with.
My brother fell silent in thought, but eventually nodded slowly, eating his steamed bun just as slowly.
“Bro, caring isn’t really about words. No matter how many nice things she says, it doesn’t compare to seeing her do one real, practical thing.” Whether it was Zhao Qin or Fan Meiyun, it was the same.
My brother smiled. “You’ve really grown up.”
“Yeah, kids from poor families learn to run a household early. I should think more for myself.”
My brother ruffled my hair, assuming I’d been shaken up by the divorce.
By then, night had completely fallen. My brother and I leaned against each other, each finding a large coat to drape over ourselves, closing our eyes to sleep. Sleeping like this was exhausting, but I drifted off anyway in a daze.
The next morning, my head ached terribly and I felt awful, plus I’d caught a bit of a cold. My whole body ached all over.
My brother and I each went to the toilet to wash up. I carefully applied some grease to my face, making myself look as ugly as possible. As I was heading out, a woman hurried in, and before I could dodge, I bumped right into her.
The woman stumbled back a few steps from the impact, frowning at me with a face full of disgust. “What’s wrong with you?”
She wore her hair loose over her shoulders, a beige trench coat, and mid-heeled pumps—quite a fine outfit for those days. She was in her early twenties and rather good-looking.
I quickly said, “I didn’t do it on purpose, but you came in too fast…”
“You weren’t watching where you were going, and you blame me? Forget it, I won’t stoop to the level of someone with no education.” The woman turned sideways to go in. I looked up and caught the contempt and loathing in her eyes. As she walked, she scrubbed hard at the spot on her clothing where I’d touched it, and the door slammed shut behind her with a bang.
I was furious. She was the one who bumped into me, so why did she have to be so disgusted by me?
Just because I was poor, did my dignity have to be trampled on?
But I quickly talked myself out of it—she was just a stranger brushing past me.
When I walked out, I unexpectedly ran into someone I knew.
Seeing me, he froze for a moment, then laughed. “Liu Yaozhen, what happened to you!” It was Gao Shanfeng, whom I’d met just yesterday!
What a coincidence!
Though it was impressive that he could even recognize me looking like this.
I said with a smile, “I’m about to go look for work with my brother. Um… my brother made me dress like this.” I figured I should explain first—who would want to look this ugly?
Gao Shanfeng was stunned at first, then understood what I meant. He nodded. “You do need to be careful. Oh, do you have my work phone number? If anything comes up, just call me.”
He reached for paper and pen. I wanted to refuse—he had been my benefactor in my past life, and in this one, I really didn’t want to trouble him. But Gao Shanfeng warmly wrote it down anyway, tore off the piece of paper, and stuffed it into my hand.
“Just keep it. If anything happens, let me know.”
Holding the slip of paper, I smiled. “You’re so warm-hearted. Have you helped a lot of people?” Was he a model of learning from Lei Feng?
Gao Shanfeng asked curiously, “Why do you say that? I haven’t helped anyone. You helped me before, so isn’t it only right that I help you? It’s called returning courtesy!”
Ah, so he wasn’t warm-hearted after all.
Just then, a woman’s voice came from behind me: “Let’s go, I’m done.”
It was that woman from earlier. Seeing me talking with Gao Shanfeng, she immediately frowned and hurried over to his side.
She gave me a glance, her eyes cold. This woman clearly had no intention of getting to know me, and naturally I wasn’t going to shamelessly force my way into her company.
Gao Shanfeng said with a smile, “Let me introduce you. This is my colleague, Qian Xiuxiu. I came to the train station to pick her up. She’s a top graduate of Capital University, and our work unit went through a lot of trouble to invite her here. This is…”
“That’s enough—what time is it already, and you’re still in the mood for this? We’ll talk next time we meet.” Qian Xiuxiu grabbed Gao Shanfeng’s wrist and quickly walked ahead, her tone very intimate. “Let’s hurry, or we’ll be late for the meeting.”
“Hold on—Liu Yaozhen, where are you headed?” he asked, turning back to us.
I said we were going to Laomingshan.
“What a coincidence! Our engineering team is heading there too. Let me take you there—we can keep each other company on the road.” Gao Shanfeng was delighted.
“No need!” Seeing Qian Xiuxiu’s face turn dark, I quickly declined. “We’re going with our own group. We’re setting off today.”
Qian Xiuxiu tugged at Gao Shanfeng. “Let’s go—we still have to get back for the meeting!”
Gao Shanfeng could only nod to me. “Then we’ll see you there. When we do… hey, what are you doing?” He stumbled as Qian Xiuxiu yanked him along.
Qian Xiuxiu just smiled without answering, and he was dragged away like that.
I said nothing, mulling it over in my mind. Could Qian Xiuxiu be that wife who later died in childbirth?
Seeing how hostile she was toward me—was she worried her husband might be stolen away?
Heh, so even someone with my appearance could put her on guard. For some reason, I actually felt a bit proud. Since they were husband and wife, and that woman was so cold toward me, then so be it. After all, that woman had been short-lived in her past life and rather unlucky—I wouldn’t hold it against her.
Just then, my brother came out from inside. He had just washed his face, his hair still dripping with water, and strode out.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’re spacing out!”
I shook my head with a smile. “Nothing. Let’s go.”
“Not having breakfast?”
“There are two steamed buns left. Let’s eat those.”
“We should save those buns to heat up when we get there. Let’s buy a couple of baozi instead.” My brother took out his money.
I stopped him. “Come on, let’s save wherever we can. Before it was just you, and now you’ve got me added on. How hard is it to stretch that little bit of money through another month? You’ll be scraping bottom before payday even comes. Let’s just eat this. After the buns, we still have the pancakes.” My brother worked so hard, yet Zhao Qin never gave him a cent.
In her mind, my brother existed to make money for Liu Yaolan, and I existed to ward off trouble for Liu Yaolan. Our entire lives were meant to be lived for Liu Yaolan’s sake.
My brother looked at me, a little embarrassed. “You’re going to suffer. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you along.”
I waved my hand with a smile. “It’s nothing. Even if it’s hard, my heart feels light and clear.”
We split the two steamed buns between us—I ate half and gave my brother the other one and a half—and each of us had a persimmon as well. Only after eating our fill did we head to the place we had agreed on yesterday.
A few people were already gathered there in twos and threes. When they saw us arrive, they only exchanged a few brief words.
Everyone was worried about not being able to set off on time. Their eyes were red, and some kept yawning—having gone around borrowing places to stay last night, they clearly hadn’t rested well either.